Chapter Text
[Christmas Eve, 2025, JFK airport]
The craziness of airports on Christmas Eve wasn’t a new thing for Max, he’d frequented international airports on holidays before and had experienced the hustle and bustle of said places. He’s sure to every passerby watching him sprint like a madman, with two car seats in his hand, through the frantic traffic of people that they can assume he’s definitely late. And that would be an accurate assumption, but this Christmas was special.
Since moving back to New York two and a half years ago Christmases have been spent in the Big Apple. Christmas in New York was special nonetheless, but they were nothing compared to a Christmas in London.
Four years ago he’d spent his first Christmas in London and that season was undoubtedly one of the greatest in his life. Memories of skating on Canary Wharf with Helen and Luna, learning how to make the perfect mulled wine, and spending his first real Christmas with Luna flashed through Max’s mind as he ran through the terminal. Living in London, even though it had been temporary, was the most profound experience of his life.
He’d always thought of London as Helen’s home, but now part of it was his too.
And with the help of his mother-in-law, niece, and family friends they’d be able to spend Christmas in London again for the first time in three years.
Once Max’s eyes landed on the boarding gate for their flight his eyes frantically searched the line of people before his eyes met Helen’s. From the moment he’d met her in the lobby all those years ago, he always had the ability to pick her out in a crowd.
Max sighs as she looks back at him looking about as disheveled as him. “I thought for a second there you weren’t gonna make it.” Helen says as she offers a relieved smile.
Max counters her expression. “Is it too late to make our Christmas into a reality movie?” He replies lightly.
Helen laughs as she adjusts the toddler on her hip, “what do you say, Bug? Want a camera all up in your face?” Helen asks as she pokes the little girl in the side gently, earning some laughter from the little one with whom she shares much resemblance.
Max reaches out to take the little girl from his wife’s arms. “You tired?” He asks as the little girl rests her head on his shoulder.
Helen looks at Max with a nod. “Our mission to get them to sleep on the plane might actually have worked.” She explains. “Luna and Jett are sharing the iPad and this one crashed out.” Helen motions towards her oldest daughter and son who had their heads down towards the iPad and an earbud in each of their ears, sitting in the airport lounge chairs a distance away.
Max rests his hand on his daughter’s back as his gaze moves to his other kids who are seemingly content to sit in the chairs while their mom stays in the boarding line.
When Max turns back to face Helen his mind is taken back to the events of two Christmases ago, with one glance into her chocolate eyes.
[New York, Christmas Day, 2023]
Helen rolls over with a grumble as she throws her arm over Max and pulls herself closer to him. She leans into the familiar feeling of his bare chest, resting her head where his heart is. She can feel the sleep wearing on her as her eyes fight to stay open as Max’s arms move up to lay on her back.
The sounds of the city outside their window were as buzzing as any other New York City day. She could hear the honk of a yellow taxi cab and the joyous laughter of city-goers.
After almost two minutes of peace, listening to the steady beat of Max’s heart, Helen’s mind finally gained enough alertness to realize what was going on.
It’s Christmas Day. They’re in New York. It’s light outside.
She quickly rolls back over to get a glance at the clock. 7:13.
Helen turns back towards Max and hits his arm with her pillow.
“Helen?” Max says with the morning exhaustion evident in his low tone. “What?”
Helen sits up, reaching for Max’s Brown University hoodie from the bottom corner of the bed. “It’s after seven and I haven’t heard a peep from Luna or the babies.”
Max suddenly understood her panic. Luna had just turned five and accompanied by her nine-month-old brother and sister, trouble was always brewing.
“They had a long night, I’m sure they’re just tired.” Max reasons. Christmas was one of those holidays that bedtimes could be negotiated, and last night Luna had certainly done that.
Helen doesn’t seem moved by Max’s theory and throws a shirt at him when she stands up to leave the room. “I’m gonna go investigate.” She states as she walks out of the room. Max quickly puts on the shirt she’d thrown his way and follows her out.
The second Helen steps out of their bedroom she can hear faint giggles coming from down the hall.
When they’d moved back to New York a year ago they’d taken out a lease on a three-bedroom apartment right by the hospital, and so far that had proven to be a very valuable investment for their family.
Max can hear the laughter too, it’s mainly from Luna but he can hear the baby babbles from his twins. “What could they possibly be doing?” Max asks. In his mind there wasn’t much that Luna could do with 2 babies.
Helen though has a very different opinion. This wouldn’t be the first time that Luna has snuck them out of their cribs without the baby monitor detecting anything.
Once Max and Helen round the corner to the kitchen their three children come into sight. Luna has on her large winter coat and boots over her Christmas pajamas. The babies are in their footy pajamas that match Luna with jackets thrown half hazardously over their tiny bodies.
Max can’t help but snigger, because nine months ago he was praying for this day to come.
Nine months ago was the birth of half of his heart. Jett Farhad Goodwin was born twelve minutes before his sister Aria Sharpe Goodwin. The two babies who’d grasped each other’s hands in their shared incubator had quickly overwhelmed Max and Helen’s hearts. Jett’s namesake had always been after Max’s grandfather and Helen’s brother since they found out they were having a boy. However, naming their little girl had been more of a challenge. The name Helen had picked out for a little girl now belonged to NAS baby Zuhrah, and Helen knew she wouldn’t feel right naming their daughter that. So she’d gone with a name suggested to her by Max; Aria. Aria means ‘lioness’ in Hebrew but also has Persian roots, and the moment their little girl had been placed on Helen’s chest she knew she was destined for greatness. And her middle name was Sharpe. Max had dreamed for years about a little girl that looked exactly like Helen and the moment he’d held Aria in his arms he’d been the driving force in having her have ‘Sharpe’ as her middle name, because she and her brother were gonna take their Goodwin-Sharpe genes to the next level.
“Where are you going?” Max asks.
Luna turns around with a guilty smile on her face. “We were just gonna go look at the snow?” She states like it’s a question. Their apartment had a little terrace that would hold snow during the winter. They’d baby proofed it so the twins could crawl around during the summer, but Helen and Max always liked to supervise when they’d be out there.
Helen looks down at Luna as she picks up Jett who was crawling towards her with his own ‘Max Goodwin’ toothy smile. “How about we go out later? We might even be able to sled.” Helen resolves as Luna nods.
“Okay!” The five-year-old chirps as she throws her coat over the back of a kitchen chair, revaluing her matching Christmas pj’s.
Max scoops up Luna and Aria into his arms. Both of his girls resemble their mothers so much that he can’t help but melt at their every demand. “Did you guys hear Santa last night? I think I hear some footsteps.” Max jokes as Luna giggles.
“He came!” She says excitedly as she wriggles down from Max’s arms and into the living room. “Santa came!”
Helen shares an amused look with Max, they may have gone a little overboard on presents this year. “How about you open a couple of presents before we FaceTime Nan and eat breakfast?” Helen explains to Luna. And before Luna can even look back to nod she’s already ripped open a present.
Max gets out his phone to start taking a video, he never saw himself as one of those dads, but he’d do anything to savor these moments with his family. Just as he’d done two years ago.
[present day, Christmas Eve, 2025]
Once they’d made it through the ridiculously long boarding line for the flight, Max had taken Jett to sit with him behind Helen and the girls. It was a red-eye flight to London, so Max and Helen had done their best to tire the kids out before loading them up on a plane for the next six hours.
Their mission had been successful on the twins, they were only three and would sleep pretty much anywhere as long as said sleep wasn’t titled ‘nap’, but Luna was too riled up with excitement to sleep with her siblings.
They’d been back to London two times since the twins were born, but both occasions had been during the summer when school was out. And the moment they’d told Luna they were going to London for Christmas it’s all she’d talked about.
Helen can see that her oldest daughter has a fondness for her home city, and that’s just another thing on the list of special connections they share. Subconsciously, Helen has always tried to make sure Luna felt extra loved, especially when the twins were born and the fact of her lack of biological relationship to Helen showed even more. Therefore, Helen always planned special Helen and Luna things, like how every Sunday they’d go to the bakery down the street before Max and the twins wake up to have some Mum and Luna time, or Helen would sometimes go to Luna’s school lunch to surprise her. It was something she’d never get tired of doing for Luna, because as much as Luna needed Helen, Helen found that she needed Luna just as much.
When Helen was pregnant with the twins she wrestled with a lot of emotion on Luna’s behalf. She didn’t want Luna to feel self conscious that her family looked different or that she didn’t share physical similarities with her mother and siblings. They’d been in London from the time Luna was three till she was almost five, and in that time calling Helen ‘mum’ was only normalized by the people around her. Every kid called their mother that same name. But when they came back to America, it was different. Luna shared the English accent with Helen, that both her siblings didn’t have or her dad, yet Helen was unsure of one thing; should her biological kids also call her Mum?
In her mind she knew if they were in London there wouldn’t be a question. But the only reason Luna ever called her that was because her Mommy Georgia wasn’t here. So could she be both Mum and Mommy?
Max had stepped up and been the sound board Helen needed when thoughts like that pierced her logical reasoning. He’d assured her that they’d always do whatever it took to make sure Luna felt included. And the little girl was more than excited to have a brother and sister that Max was sure she didn’t mind the circumstances.
Luna was a resilient little girl from the time she was born, and that wasn’t changing as she grew up.
“You okay, Lu?” Helen asks as she finishes buckling Aria’s seatbelt and putting their carryon bags under the seats.
Luna looked up from her iPad with a nod, “when we get to London will it be Christmas?” The seven-year old asks.
Helen shakes her head, “yes, which is why you need to sleep.” Helen explains as she runs her hand through Aria’s thick curls as she sleeps in the middle seat between Helen and Luna.
Luna nods, “will Nan be there?”
Helen smiles, “she will be. She’s helped me get things ready for us when we arrive.” Helen replies. Her relationship with her own mother had gone through the resurrection of a lifetime during their time in London. Helen had learned things she never knew before, and it was a very enlightening, and at times frightening, two years.
In those two years Luna had grown a bond with Serwa that came as a surprise to both Max and Helen. It started when Serwa took Luna for a weekend when they were at a conference in Cardiff. But then Serwa started babysitting Luna a couple nights a week and attending her school functions. It was like she’d fully taken the role of grandmother to the little girl, and it couldn’t have made Helen happier. Not only did Luna have doting grandparents in the states but an incredibly loving one in London as well.
“And we’ll do all the stuff we normally would. Like ice skating and Christmas dinner?” Luna inquires. Christmas was her favorite holiday, and if Max and Helen would let her, she’d decorate their entire house on November 1st.
Helen reaches across the seat and grabs Luna’s hand, “this Christmas is gonna be fun, I promise. You’ll do everything we did when we lived in London, and stuff that your brother and sister like from New York.”
Luna seems content with that answer and hands the iPad to Helen, who trades the electronics for a small blanket from their carryon. Helen lays the blanket over her daughters who she’d hope would sleep the entirety of the flight.
Luna quickly lays her head against the window, staring out at the sight of the runway of JFK, the dark sky making seeing anything other than flashing light signals very difficult. She’d been looking forward to going back to London since she’d found out in October. London was as much her home as New York, and every chance to go back she took.
Helen smiles as she watches Luna’s eyes grow heavy as the plane slowly moves across the ground and towards the runway.
Four and a half years ago she had sat in the middle seat of a flight much like this one. Her thoughts were running faster than the plane during takeoff due to a not so subtle voicemail left by her then boss, Max Goodwin. She’d spent a month away, and in that time so much had changed.
Four and a half years later she’s surrounded by their family. A family she wouldn’t have if it weren’t for that man and his voicemails. Part of her used to see hopping on a plane as a mechanism of running away. But now, it’s her way of coming home.
Helen turned back in her seat and looked back one her boys behind her. Max’s head lay upright against the headrest and their young son was sleeping against his father’s arm. Helen smirks at the sight of them. They were so similar it was too uncanny at times.
Jett had looked so much like her at birth, maybe even more than his sister, but within his first two months he’d developed those soul-deepening blue eyes and signature pout, and the light brown color of his curls only added to the Max Goodwin effect on the young boy.
Helen turns back towards the girls and tugs the blanket around them, laying her own head against the seat in an attempt to get a couple hours of rest during the flight.
Once the pilot came on and told them to prepare for takeoff and the lights went off, she too lost the battle to sleep. The prospect of waking up in London on Christmas was enough to lull her under.
———
Max is shuffled awake by the lights overhead turning on. For a moment he’s unsure of where he is, but it quickly hits him. They’re in London, and it’s Christmas Day. The sun had risen over the airport in London and like all the previous Christmases spent in England, snow had fallen along the terminal.
Max stands up seeing that Helen and both his daughter’s were awake and packing up their stuff to leave the plane. Max scoops up Jett into his arms and lets the boy rest his head against Max’s shoulder, the young boy still feeling the effects of sleep. “Dad, are we in London?” Jett asks as Max slings his backpack over his other shoulder.
Max smiles as his eyes meet his wife’s, “yeah we are.” He replies.
Helen looks over at Max gently, taking in the sight of the two men she loves most in life. “You ready? My mum says she’s at the flat waiting for us. And Mina is waiting at baggage claim to drive us there.” Helen explains.
Max can’t suppress the grin on his face, “let’s get off this plane then.” He laughs as Helen joins the line of other passengers getting off the plane.
Luna holds Aria’s hand as they walk behind Helen, and Max and Jett bring up the rear.
They work their way through customs pretty quickly considering they have three kids in tow. Luna was chatting away to Aria about all that they would get to do in London. The two sisters shared very few physical similarities, but their mannerisms and personalities were almost identical considering they were almost five years apart in age.
Helen leads the way through the airport and once they get their collection of bags, which was a lot even though they’d only been in the city for a week.
Mina smiled and waved the minute they cleared her vision. She was finishing her last semester at Cambridge and was looking forward to law school in the fall. Helen could tell you herself the strides Mina had made in the last few years. She definitely wasn’t the same moody teenager again.
“Oh look at you,” Mina exclaims as her twin cousins run up to her and give her hugs, “you’ve grown up so much.” She swears they are growing up so quickly that she’s missing almost everything.
Helen laughs as Jett speaks up, “you saw us on video last week!” He giggles.
Mina puts her hands on her hips, “I did. But I can still miss my cousins? Right, Luna?”
Luna nods firmly, fully backing up her cousin, “yep.”
Max stands behind them, rolling six bags of luggage and three car seats, “care to help?” He states with a laugh.
Helen quickly grabs the car seats from his hands and puts them in the car. Mina was borrowing her boyfriend’s car which had enough room to fit their family of five.
Once they have everything, including the kids, loaded up into the car Mina drives away from the airport and towards the flat they have rented for the next week where her mum was waiting.
Helen listens in utter delight at the sounds and squeals of the kids in the seats behind her. Their giggles and soft smiles would forever make her day. One smile from her husband could do her over, but smiles from her kids could swiftly melt her into a puddle of complete chaos.
Sharing an experience like this with her kids, that was worth a million plane rides and dollars spent on airfare. Christmas in London was undoubtedly her favorite time and place of any moment in the world. Spending it with the people she loves only added to the excellent feeling that Christmas brings to her heart.
————
[London, December 25th, 2023]
Max stood with his back against the counter, the stacks of cardboard boxes of both opened Christmas presents and moving containers, not even enough to disrupt the Christmas madness ensuing at their flat.
Luna had just turned five and was rounding a new turn of her life as they were moving back to New York in just a few short weeks. But that wasn’t it, in a few short weeks all of their lives were about to change.
Max gazed his eyes on Helen, her hand resting atop her protruding belly as she conversed casually with her mother. At 28 weeks she looked almost full-term as their twins pushed the limits of her body.
This time last year they’d made a trip back to New York to begin the process of IVF, and six months later they’d found out she was pregnant. Max was going to be a dad again, Helen was going to have the miracle baby she dreamed of for so long, and Luna was going to be a big sister. And their excitement only doubled when an ultrasound technician had turned the screen and showed them not one, but two babies.
Max walked back over to their living area and sat down on the couch next to Luna who was busy playing with her new dolls. “Your tea, my love.” He says as he hands Helen a mug of her favorite herbal tea.
Helen smiles in response, “thanks, babe.”
Luna looks over at him and perks her head up from her dollhouse, “Daddy, how will all my new toys get to New York?” She asks innocently.
Max nods, “well before we leave we’ll have to box them back up and ship them to our home in New York, and when we get there they will be waiting for you.” Max explains as Luna seems to understand. She definitely wasn’t the little girl who had moved here with her Dada and new Mum two years ago.
Serwa turns her attention towards her son-in-law. It still felt weird to think of the man in front of her as such, but after six months of marriage to her daughter she was coming around to the idea. “When are you planning on leaving for New York again?” She asks. They’d told her a couple months ago that before the babies were born that they were going to move back to New York since the clinic was doing well and things had settled down enough to allow for Max’s re entry to New Amsterdam.
Max casually slips his hand through Helen’s, “in about three weeks. We want all the travel rush surrounding the holidays to have passed, but not too close to when these two will be coming.” Max expresses as his hand rests on top of Helen’s growing belly.
Helen nods in agreement to her husband, “that should leave a few weeks for us to get settled before the babies are born.” She adds with a smile in her mother’s direction. Serwa was quiet in her support about their move back to New York. And Helen knows it’s weighing on her that her three grandchildren are going to be separated from her by an ocean. But her mother had become more open in the last two years, and maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. “And maybe you’ll want to come for a couple of weeks when they’re born?” Helen asks.
Serwa looks at the face of her daughter, “that sounds lovely.” She says as she too places her hand over Helen’s belly. Watching her daughter grow and raise kids of her own was an image she once gave up on, but somehow things had proven otherwise.
Helen can feel tears pricking the corners of her eyes before Max speaks up again, “but we’ll definitely be back for more Christmases on this side of the pond.” He adds with a smile at Serwa.
A tear falls from the corner of her eyes as Helen looks over at Luna who is smiling and laughing while playing with her new toys.
The life they’d built together in the last two and a half years was beyond worthwhile. It was worth every trip across the pond, every injection and OB-GYN appointment, every early drop off at a nursery, and every late night at the clinic. All the hours spent stuck in that tiny flat were the hands holding Max and Helen’s world together.
Every moment spent together, being a family, made them realize what is truly important in life. Chasing joy, choosing joy, and living with it.
[London, December 25th, 2025]
Helen watches in awe of the people and scene in front of her. Deja vu hit hard when she walked into the London flat they’d rented and saw a Christmas tree decorated with the same ornaments and tinsel they had on their first Christmas together all those years ago. But what had hit her heart even harder was her stocking hung on the chimney beside the stockings of her kids, niece, husband, and mother. They’d come a long way from just a Dada, Mum, and Luna stocking.
Luna ran straight into Serwa’s arms the moment her grandmother landed in her sight. The twins weren’t far behind as they too wanted to hug their only grandparent. Serwa embraced her grandkids gently and did the same to her daughter and son-in-law.
And after that the world fell into place for one whole day.
Luna led the package brigade by tearing open all her gifts at lightning speed. Aria and Jett did the same, albeit a little slower, but nonetheless just as exciting.
For so long Helen and Max had given up on the idea of a family that looked like this. After Mohammed and Georgia passed, it’s like the world spun off its axis. And no matter how hard they tried to rock it back on, they were still teetering on the edge daily.
But it wasn’t until their orbits collided that the world finally fell off. They’d spent so long trying to get the world to go back on its axis they didn’t even realize that falling in love meant falling off completely.
The force of love and attraction Max feels towards Helen and Helen to Max was enough to scatter their planets into the galaxy. And even in the farthest spaces of the galaxy, Max’s planet found Helen’s.
And if they could find each other there, they could find each other anywhere.
Four Christmases later, everything and nothing has changed. They’d have it no other way.